<ol>
<li>What are the chief gripes of people around here?</li>
<li>I agree that most of the dorms aren't gorgeous, but in the end I think it's the people in the dorm who matter; I know people who lived in Wren, arguably the worst dorm, who still had a blast.</li>
<li>Are most classes lectures or are they discussion?</li>
<li>It's not necessarily an either/or. The intro classes will be 100+ lectures, but people still ask questions. And smaller classes can feature a professor talking for most of the time, with time set aside for discussion.</li>
<li>Do you think the students here take an active part in the discussion or is the class lifeless?</li>
<li>Depends on the class; the smaller classes I've been in, discussion is lively, partic. because class participation factors into your grade. But in something like intro Econ, it's usually up to the professor to make the class lively.</li>
<li>Do the professors give essay or multiple-choice exams?</li>
<li>It really varies depending on the class and the prof. The sciences may be more multiple-choice oriented than the social sciences; math exams have short-answer-type problems. Some classes don't even have "exams" as such, they have a take-home midterm and final, meaning papers. Other classes require research papers. Still others feature essay exams, or exams where you have to define terms in a few short sentences. It really depends on the subject matter and prof's preference.</li>
<li>After class, do any students hang around to ask questions or continue the discussion, or does everyone leave immediately?</li>
<li>I actually prefer waiting until class is over to ask the professor something if I feel it's off-topic, but something I'm interested in. A lot of people take this approach. Often, after class, people will head off to the dining hall together and continue discussing ideas raised in class, or something like that.</li>
<li>Is there any discussion about what happened in class?</li>
<li>Yeah, sure, like I said. But in addition to discussing interesting facts and ideas raised, people who have classes together will just bring up funny crap the professor said or did and laugh about it.</li>
<li>What are the main reasons why the people who dropout even do it?
The people I know who had to leave mid-semester did so because of serious family, health, or financial reasons. But if you mean transfers, that depends on the person; some people got rejected from their first choice, came to Tufts, and were ****ed the whole time that it wasn't, say, Brown - then they elected to transfer to Brown, not having given Tufts a chance. Others came to Tufts and then realized they want to study business, and Tufts has no business school. That type of thing.</li>
<li>Is there close collaboration between students and faculty?</li>
<li>I sure think so. I work as a legal research assistant for an Econ professor. If you mean "collaboration" in a different sense - like, do the faculty help you bounce ideas off each other when you're writing a paper? - that def. happens if you take the initiative and go to their office hours.</li>
<li>Does every senior write a thesis or do some kind of huge project in the end?</li>
<li>Not everyone, but some people are motivated enough to do that.</li>
<li>Have you ever stayed in one of your professor's homes before?</li>
<li>Haha, I was about to answer this "not yet", but then I remembered that our choir director always has us over for parties after concerts, and takes us on retreats too.</li>
<li>Do TA's teach, or actual professors?</li>
<li>TAs ONLY teach discussion sections/review sessions. Professors teach in lectures. The only exception I can think of is when the professor had to leave for some emergency, and rather than cancelling class, had the TA go over some things with us, after which we left early.</li>
<li>Are there a lot of part-time faculty?</li>
<li>Sure. But that's a good thing, in my opinion, because in my experience the part-time faculty are part-time b/c they're also professors at Harvard, BC, BU, etc. I think that's probably truest for the tiniest departments - my professors for really high-level Russian classes spend half their time at Harvard or BC, but they're still really excellent instructors who make themselves available.</li>
<li>What are class sizes here, honest? Not only in upper classes but in those that everyone has to take.</li>
<li>I think it depends on how specific the subject matter is, in part. If it's Intro Bio, there will be like 300 spots open. If it's some specific topic - like, Japan until 1868 - the class will probably be around 30-40 people (or less, if less people register.) Still smaller are the seminars, which are capped at 17 or so. And even smaller are classes like the aforementioned high-level Russian courses, where I had a class of 5 people. But I still felt like I had individual attention, even in the big classes, because A. you can always meet the prof for office hours, and B. usually the big classes have recitations, where you meet with a TA to go over material or get help with your research.</li>
<li>Are faculty available after class and keep regular office hours, or do they leave?</li>
<li>They're required to have office hours, and are really big on them. A lot practically beg you to come for office hours, b/c otherwise they just sit alone in their office and do whatever. I've always found office hours super-helpful; in fact, going to one prof's office hours lead to me getting a job from him.</li>
<li>Does the faculty advising system really work?</li>
<li>I agree with what Ben is saying about advisors from CAP courses, but for people who took, say, Perspectives or Explorations, you may not end up with an initial advisor who knows anything about your major. So your first advisor will help you fill your requirements. But as you're taking classes, you should be forming relationships with your profs, and eventually can ask one of your faves to be your advisor. I really love both my advisors (I have two majors) and they have often helped me make decisions unrelated to classes, such as whether to work or take summer courses, etc. If you take classes and don't really feel like you can cultivate a relationship with your profs, you can always just ask a random prof who isn't full. I think the departments hold receptions around major-declaration time in order to give people the opportunity to meet faculty and get major advisors if they haven't yet.</li>
<li>Do the advisers really advise, or do they just make schedules?
See above.</li>
<li>Is there a lot of competition for grades?
Not really. People try to get good grades for themselves, by themselves. It's not like people will sabotage you, or refuse to answer your questions about the assignment b/c they don't wnat to give you a leg up. I mean, there probably are SOME people like that, but I've gone to lots of study groups where everyone is willing to split the work and share what they've learned.</li>
<li>Is Tufts hard and challenging? For real?
If that's what you want, that's what you'll get. You can ask around for "easy" classes and have a relatively light load. But mostly I find the classes demanding, but manageable. And I mean, it depends on the work you put into your classes. If you don't do the reading and skip class, it won't be a hard class until the night before the paper is due and you're feverishly looking for quotes in previously-unseen material.</li>
<li>Are the dorm rooms really loud; do fun and games come first at Tufts?
As a rule, freshman dorms will tend to be louder than mixed. But I've seen some really loud halls in mixed dorms, and quiet halls in freshman dorms. It depends on the mix of people. And if you have an issue with noise, you can always go and study in the library. If you're trying to go to bed, you can ask them to quiet down or complain to an RA or something.</li>
<li>Do a lot of students take advantage of the opportunities? A lot of students say that there's nothing to do when there's actually a lot to do.</li>
<li>I did sometimes feel like I was wasting a lot of time when I would go to check my email and end up uselessly computer-ing for an hour, instead of joining organizations and groups. You can check tuftslife.com every day to see a list of all the events and meetings taking place throughout the day. But for the most part I'd say students have found at least one pursuit that captivates them, that they dedicate time to. It's different from high school, where I did like 50 activities every week. Here I picked a few things that really matter to me and stuck to them.</li>
<li>Does Tufts really encourage independent thinking, or is it more conformist?</li>
<li>They definitely encourage you to go out and break some ground, do research, etc. Professors don't want to read boring research papers they've read before, they want to see you really probing your mind and coming up with something new. But I guess, um, in the sciences, you're probably expected to "conform" to...fact.</li>
<li>How easy is it to get the classes you want at registration?</li>
<li>Depends. Some classes will fill up immediately - like, say, Math for Social Choice, an easy math requirement - or the generally popular ones. I mean, you can look at the ratings on the professor websites, and think "Hey, this guy sounds good" - but a whole lot of other people are reading the same ratings and drawing the same conclusions. It may be harder as a freshman, since what's left after all the upperclassmen register are usually the intro-level classes, but that's expected, and as you get older, you get to register earlier and have a greater shot of getting into your top choices. The thing is, I compare this to how other schools work - my friend at UDel says that he sends in his, like, top 5 classes or so, and they get him into maybe 3 of them, and then he has to pick one from the remainders. I feel like at Tufts, you have a much better shot of getting the classes you like.</li>
</ol>
<p>Anyway, hope my LONG-WINDED answers helped.</p>